ControlAI evidence findings — 2026-09-05
Public-source bounded investigation. No outreach, private access, paid services or publication. About 18 search queries plus targeted primary-source opens. This workstream does not establish who finances ControlAI upstream. It establishes legal control, accounting disclosure boundaries and a deliberately organized creator-to-policy influence mechanism.
Legal identity and control
ControlAI's own privacy notice identifies Secure Future Research Ltd as its registered UK name. Companies House number 15088415; incorporated 22 August 2023; private company limited by guarantee without share capital; SIC 70210, public relations and communications. It is not the unrelated CTRL AI LTD 15994292, ENERGY CONTROL AI LTD or similarly named AI businesses surfaced in search.
Andrea Miotti and Eva Christa Annelore Behrens are the two active UK directors, appointed 22 August 2023. Each is also a person with significant control: more than 25% but no more than 50% voting rights, and right to appoint/remove directors. Nicolas Michel Pierre Moës was a director and PSC from incorporation until 7 November 2023. Do not turn Miotti's founder title into sole legal control. ControlAI's current about page identifies Andrea Miotti as founder/CEO, Connor Leahy as US Executive Director, Eva Behrens as Special Projects Lead, Max Winga as Creator Outreach & Systems Lead, and Des Browne and Gabriel Alfour as advisors. It describes Leahy and Alfour as Conjecture cofounders and Alfour as having helped Andrea found ControlAI. This is personnel/organizational overlap, not proof of money transfers from Conjecture.
US organization: CONTROL AI US, INC.; House lobbying registrant ID 77126, client/House ID 771260001. ControlAI and Germany's official lobby register identify it as a 501(c)(4). CauseIQ reports EIN 33-3361748. No US incorporation certificate, IRS determination letter or complete board roster was read in this pass.
Money and the accounting boundary
The UK 2025 accounts were filed and approved on 21 August 2026; first search snippet was stale and initially showed 2024. The current primary filing index and actual downloaded iXBRL establish the newer filing. Saved source: secure-future-research-accounts-2025.xhtml in this folder.
| Balance-sheet item | 31 Dec 2025 GBP | 31 Dec 2024 GBP |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed assets | 20,219 | 29,786 |
| Current assets | 7,587,477 | 5,455,883 |
| Prepayments/accrued income | 94,833 | 20,908 |
| Creditors within one year | 85,716 | 379,994 |
| Net current assets | 7,596,594 | 5,096,797 |
| Total assets less current liabilities | 7,616,813 | 5,126,583 |
| Accruals and deferred income | 7,596,691 | 5,126,583 |
| Net assets / income and expenditure account | 20,122 | 0 |
| Average employees including directors | 9 | 8 |
These are unaudited filleted micro-entity statements under FRS 105. The income and expenditure account was not delivered to the registrar, citing Companies Act s444(5A). The filing therefore gives no annual expenditure, donation revenue, creator spend or named donors. Current assets are not necessarily all cash; deferred income is not equivalent to unrestricted reserves; do not read the £7.6m balance sheet as an annual budget.
CauseIQ's public extraction of a FY2025 US 990-EZ (received by IRS 23 June 2026 according to its index) reports contributions $136,570; miscellaneous revenues $377; total revenue $136,947; expenses $93,682; assets $69,178. The tax-return PDF failed retrieval and ProPublica was unavailable, so these amounts are aggregator-reported and not verified against the primary return. The difference between UK and US figures cannot be interpreted without cross-entity agreements/accounting scope.
On 20 April 2026 ControlAI proposed scaling to a $50m yearly budget, with scenarios reaching $500m or $1bn. Those are fundraising targets and hypothetical deployment scenarios, not receipts. Its July 13 2026 grantmaking.ai application asks for $50k minimum / up to $1m to expand G7 parliamentary outreach excluding the US. It is an application, not an award. Neither source discloses existing donors. No primary evidence of a ControlAI grant or gift from Jaan Tallinn, SFF, FLI, Open Philanthropy, a fiscal sponsor or a donor-advised fund was located. That is a record boundary, not evidence of absence.
Creator and policy mechanism
ControlAI's April 20 plan reports 14 creator collaborations, a mix of paid and free, including Hank Green and Rational Animations. It reports 22 media publications separately. The 2025 impact report (December 2024 through January 2026) instead reports 18 media publications, 14 videos involving channels totaling 20m+ subscribers, over 30,000 people using its lawmaker-contact tools and 160,000+ messages. These are organization-reported impact metrics, not an independent attribution study.
The creator outreach job is especially strong evidence about mechanism: reports to Head of Advocacy, identifies creator partners, conducts campaign outreach, briefs creators, drafts or reviews scripts, and keeps videos focused on AI extinction risk. Advertised salary is £60k–£80k. It proves an internal editorial-support/advocacy function; it does not prove the contractual veto rights or disclosure practices of every collaboration.
The impact report says lawmaker outreach uses cold outreach, introductions and dinners, then briefings, campaign signatures, public statements and demands for government action, with conversion rates tracked. The organization explicitly aims to secure national and international prohibitions on superintelligence. Its claimed contribution to two January 2026 Lords debates is self-attributed in the report; this pass did not separately audit Hansard causation.
Germany provides a concrete contracted lobbying edge: CONTROL AI US INC is registered R007795 (first entry 19 Jan 2026; last update 16 Mar 2026), operating in its own interest through third parties. Consultant Amir Benjamin Balde's register R007864 identifies Control AI US INC as his client for political education on existential AI risks. His filing lists 0 euros received for that client during calendar 2025; this does not establish zero compensation in 2026. The organization's German financial fields still state no fully completed financial year; this is the registry's disclosed state, and should not be generalized after a 2025 US tax-return summary has surfaced elsewhere.
Frame Fellowship's website identifies Max Winga as a past mentor from Control AI and CAIS as a participating organization. That establishes shared creator-training infrastructure, not a transfer of funds or common control between ControlAI and CAIS. Frame advertises a $10,000 stipend plus accommodation/meals for its September–November 2026 cohort and distinguishes an independent editorial-control track from an organizational amplifier track. The site also reports FLI funding for fellow Mateus De Souza and CAIS contracts for Mikey Posada and Veronica Hylak; these are Frame's claims about those organizations' relationships, not evidence that ControlAI funded Frame.
Best sources and read status
| ID | Exact URL | Date / period | Read status / use |
|---|---|---|---|
| C01 | https://controlai.org/privacy | Undated current page; read 2026-09-05 | Opened/read primary; UK trading-name bridge and supporter-action data mechanics |
| C02 | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15088415 | Incorporation 2023-08-22; current record | Opened/read primary; UK entity identity |
| C03 | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15088415/filing-history | Accounts filed 2026-08-21, year to 2025-12-31 | Opened/read primary index; actual current iXBRL downloaded/read at https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15088415/filing-history/MzU0MDI5NDI2MmFkaXF6a2N4/document?download=1&format=xhtml |
| C04 | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15088415/officers | Current and former appointments since 2023 | Opened/read primary; directors |
| C05 | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15088415/persons-with-significant-control | Current and former PSCs since 2023 | Opened/read primary; actual legal voting/director-appointment control |
| C06 | https://controlai.org/about | Current page, read 2026-09-05 | Opened/read organization primary; operational leadership and advisory roles |
| C07 | https://controlai.org/blog/prevent-asi-plan | 2026-04-20 | Opened/read primary; paid/free collaborations, fundraising targets and proposed allocation |
| C08 | https://controlai.b-cdn.net/2025-controlai-impact-report-v2.pdf | Dec 2024–Jan 2026; released 2026 | Opened/read 11-page primary PDF; metrics and influence sequence |
| C09 | https://jobs.eu.lever.co/controlai/9e58f381-34ed-4e65-90e7-8a31e6a2b16b | Undated; indexed approximately spring 2026 | Opened/read primary employer posting; scriptwriting and creator recruitment function |
| C10 | https://www.lobbyregister.bundestag.de/suche/R007795 | First 2026-01-19; last change 2026-03-16 | Opened/read official registry; US entity and Germany activities, financial disclosure gap |
| C11 | https://www.lobbyregister.bundestag.de/suche/R007864 | First 2026-03-01; last change 2026-03-16; financial period 2025 | Opened/read official registry; Balde client and commissioned service |
| C12 | https://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov/lookup.asp?reg_id=77126 | Current retrieved 2026-09-05 | Opened/read official registry; registrant/client ID only, no spending validated |
| C13 | https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/control-ai-us,333361748/ | FY2025; IRS-received 2026-06-23; posted Aug 2026 | Opened/read secondary public extraction; PDF failed. Figures remain secondary |
| C14 | https://framefellowship.com/ | Cohort 2 Sept 7–Nov 15 2026; past mentor/participant claims | Opened/read organization primary; shared infrastructure and editorial track distinctions |
| C15 | https://app.grantmaking.ai/orgs/f723327d-43a4-4e02-ae12-5f68bb6f086f | Application 2026-07-13 | Opened/read applicant text; request $50k–$1m, no award established |
Typed edges
Amounts marked null mean unknown/not a monetary edge, never zero.
| From | To | Type | Amount | Currency | Period | Source | Certainty and limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secure Future Research Ltd | ControlAI | trading_name | null | null | Current | C01/C02 | Documented entity bridge |
| Andrea Miotti | Secure Future Research Ltd | director_and_voting_control | null | null | Since 2023-08-22 | C04/C05 | >25–50% votes plus appoint/remove directors; not sole control |
| Eva Behrens | Secure Future Research Ltd | director_and_voting_control | null | null | Since 2023-08-22 | C04/C05 | >25–50% votes plus appoint/remove directors |
| Nicolas Moës | Secure Future Research Ltd | former_director_and_control | null | null | 2023-08-22–2023-11-07 | C04/C05 | Historical, ceased |
| Andrea Miotti | Control AI US Inc | chief_executive | null | null | Current German register | C10 | Authorized representative; US board not independently mapped |
| Connor Leahy | ControlAI | us_executive_director | null | null | Current | C06 | Organization biography |
| Gabriel Alfour | ControlAI | advisor_and_foundation_assistance | null | null | Current/historical | C06 | Helped founder; no funding transfer established |
| Connor Leahy / Gabriel Alfour | Conjecture | cofounder_overlap | null | null | Historical | C06 | Personnel overlap only |
| Unnamed contributors | Control AI US Inc | reported_contributions | 136570 | USD | FY2025 | C13 | Secondary 990EZ extraction only; donor names unknown |
| ControlAI | Creator collaborations | paid_and_unpaid_content_partnership | null | null | By 2026-04-20 | C07 | 14 collaborations, aggregate mix; individual contracts/payment amounts unknown |
| ControlAI | Creator outreach employee | advertised_salary | 60000–80000 | GBP/year | Posting read 2026-09-05 | C09 | Advertised range, not paid payroll or creator fees |
| Control AI US Inc | Amir Benjamin Balde | commissioned_lobbying_service | null | null | Registered Mar 2026 | C10/C11 | Client documented; 2026 payment unknown; FY2025 declared receipts 0 EUR |
| Max Winga / ControlAI | Frame Fellowship | past_mentor | null | null | Prior cohort, current website | C14 | Mentorship, no fiscal/control edge |
| Frame Fellowship | CAIS | participating_organization | null | null | 2026 cohort | C14 | Institutional participation; no common control proved |
| Prospective funders | ControlAI | grant_application_request | 50000–1000000 | USD | 2026-07-13 | C15 | Application, not award or received money |
Strongest interpretation, rivals and gaps
The strongest supported story is a professional nonprofit advocacy operation deliberately joining paid and unpaid creator partnerships, script assistance, supporter mobilization and direct lobbying to seek a superintelligence ban. UK control is concentrated in two named people; its latest public balance sheet holds millions in assets offset largely by accruals/deferred income, while the filing omits the annual income/expenditure account. Donor identity, campaign-earmark conditions and creator fee schedules are not established.
Rival explanation: mission-aligned philanthropy commonly funds professional communications, educational content and lobbying. These mechanisms are compatible with sincere risk beliefs and openly labeled partnerships. Shared mentors, conferences, scientific advisers and donor ecology can reflect a small field rather than common command. Neither payment nor script assistance proves a creator stated beliefs they did not hold, concealed sponsorship, or lacked editorial independence.
Material gaps: named donors and amounts; conditions and renewal rights; UK/US intercompany transfers; US primary return and actual board; current US LD-1/LD-2 details; paid-vs-free roster for the 14 videos; contracts specifying editorial rights/disclosure; independent attribution of policy outcomes. Do not assert Tallinn, FLI, CAIS, SFF or Conjecture funded or controlled ControlAI on this record.
Secondary lead not promoted to verified amount: OpenLobby reports $60k US lobbying spend across three 2025 quarterly filings and identifies Max Hernandez-Zapata, but underlying LD-2 returns were not read. https://www.openlobby.us/clients/control-ai-us-inc